There are a lot of things to tell you about that have happened in a relatively short time.

Renovations: the bathroom renovations are moving smoothly, with only a few more things to be done.  The project is shaping up to be quite attractive.

Fall Colours:  The fall colours were probably at their peak on the Thanksgiving weekend.  There will still trees that were quite green, but as of Monday the leaves started falling, and there are many on the lawn.  This was a view of our driveway and then on the road by our mailbox.  Last night we had our first frost, and today there were brief snow flurries.

Guests:  We had Brian’s sister and brother-in-law up for a visit on the Thanksgiving weekend, and then friends from Ottawa, Hal and Monique Hamilton, for three days this weekend.  I worked with Hal when I started out as a stockbroker.

The Bala Cranberry Festival:  We took the Hamiltons to the Bala Cranberry Festival today.  This is an event in a tiny little town; we tried it last year for the first time, and it was charming.  That weekend was cool and rainy, but this weekend was not.  The place was packed.

A little highway is the main street through town, and the traffic was literally stop-start.  The crowds were huge, and there were all kinds of attractions including many street vendors.

The Bala falls are a beautiful piece of traditional Muskoka scenery with all the rocks and trees.

All kinds of groups were represented, including the local volunteer fire department.  My view was that if my mother could do things with dinosaurs, then I could have all the fun I wanted.

We had seen signs for camel rides, and were laughing.  How ridiculous.  How could this possibly be?  This was before we met Todd.  Monique and I had a rather unique experience.

Tod was from the Bowmanville zoo, maybe a two or three hour drive from Bala.  He had been born in captivity, and now was considered a fairly young camel of 12 years of age, given a normal life expectancy of 30 years.  When he handler was slow in getting started, Tod would nudge his shoulder to indicate he was ready to get going.

On our drive home, Monique noticed two moose very near the road.  I got a hurried picture of one before they moved off.  It was an unique end to a unique day.

Oh, I couldn't resist.  A Thought For The Day from the Bala Cranberry Festival.

I am sure you think I have disappeared off the face of the planet, but when I arrived back from Edmonton, our bathroom renovations had just started a day beforehand.  This meant moving our dressers from the master bedroom (big) to the guest room (little) to hold our clothes while the drywallers were at work.

This is what the room off the master bedroom looked like as a closet.

They drywalled the ensuite and two new closets in our master bedroom.   This meant cleaning the house from top to bottom because drywall dust gets everywhere, despite how careful the workers can be.

A new closet, freshly painted inside!

This week, the carpenter and tiler were big workers, and I was trying to get walls painted so that I wouldn’t have to work around fixtures later.  They were trying to avoid getting their picture taken, which is why the picture is blurred, but you can see they practically were on top of one another.

Today the plumber and electrician were in, so the bathroom is partly functioning, in good time for guests arriving Saturday.

In the meantime, we have had intermittent internet access for a few days (it finally worked prperly yesterday), Windows 10 hid my new pictures (I found them today), and my printers had to be reinstalled for them to work properly (also accomplished today).

Brian is vacuuming as I speak, which is the norm after a day of workers.

Next week will feature a fair amount of painting (including the master bedroom) so pictures may be boring for a while, but I will be better in keeping touch!